5 Belgians participated in the blended course of ENNE. For each of them, it was quite an experience. The online start of the course was not always easy for everyone. The combination with the daily assignment was a challenge. In terms of content, the sessions were very interesting. The formation of the partnerships was confusing as unexpected dropouts brought a lot of uncertainties.  Because of this start, the expectations for the face to face training were positive but tense.

The Belgian participants did not yet know each other personally. The 2 days before the start of the training allowed a fine introduction in a relaxed, sun-drenched atmosphere.

The teachers present were pleasantly surprised by the change that the face to face connection with the other participants brought. It gave the feeling of an official start of their project. A real introduction was generally no longer necessary thanks to the online sessions. Alignment of ideas all the more so. The participants were instructed on how to write a KA2 project on which they started working. In “creativity in VET”, with the help of the Belgian Mentor, project lines could be laid out and the writing process could begin.

In other projects, sometimes a lot of coordination had to take place first to get all the project partners on the same page. For these kind of project, the schedule was to full resulting in not enough time to progress with the development of the project. The use of a Gantt chart during the training did provide a basis for the further elaboration of the application.

In addition to the writing work on the KA2 projects, the training was a wonderful networking opportunity and a chance to develop subject-specific knowledge of the English language. A visit to a partner school proved to be very enriching, as Vanessa Bijnens from Level X in Hasselt, among others, told us:

“It was wonderful to be able to see how the students develop their creative skills, to see their manual and digital execution of their assignments and certainly the presentation of their works. Getting to know people in the same field yet under a different creative form is great. The way of teaching in a different country, in a different language but being able to feel and experience the experience of being creative internationally is for me beyond words.  SIMPLY FANTASTIC!”